WHOA! I'm in love with WHO?! (A Roy Mustang love story) {Central's Doctors}

The guy in the front of the building stuck out like a sore thumb in my memory—his face was serene (too serene if you ask me, but I might just be paranoid) under a black beanie and as he smoked his cigarette I noticed a scar running from the middle of his forehead down over his right eye and ending at his jaw. His shirt was black under his brown trench coat but I didn’t exactly see his pants, though I have a feeling they’re black, too.

I rounded the corner into the alleyway and spotted another man, wearing the same beanie and shirt leaning against the wall, smoking his cigarette. I could make out a few locks of blond hair sprouting out from under it, but no scaring was evident on his face or arms. Strangely enough, his shirt was long and hung over his hips, but I still took extra notice to the oddly-shaped bump on his right hip. He took another drag on his cigarette and nodded his head at me when I got close. Alchemic energy burned my palm as I raised my hand up to wave slightly before I tapped my palm against his elbow. Every muscle in his pale-white skin tensed and the cigarette in his lips slipped down, dropping against his knee before falling onto the ground, the red-hot embers flickering slightly before they died out.

I muttered about not messing with the doctors from Central before continuing past him, climbing in through the window to see Armstrong, Dakota, Victoria, Robert, Havoc and Sciezka already in the room. I jumped off the sill and shut the glass behind me.

The doctors all looked up at me for a moment before returning to what they were doing before—Dakota was on the phone, Vicky was making a new pot of coffee and Robert was attending to a patient. Atop of that, Havoc was leaning back in the seat he was sitting in for lunch, fiddling with an unlit cigarette as he messed with the one in his lips with his tongue, as well. Sciezka was sitting, quietly, beside him, rummaging through a few books to memorize everything and Armstrong was sitting in a corner of the room, watching us silently but intently. Dakota hung up the phone and turned around to me, smirking. I raised my eyebrow at her but said nothing. “Hey… Guys?”

“I noticed,” Vicky answered, first, turning so that her back was against the counter. I noticed that Dakota’s eyes flashed to the door quickly before her hands went, deep, into her pockets. Robert, on the other hand, glanced at me again and answered, “There’s a few more in the waiting room, too. And I noticed someone smoking out front on our way in.”

“He’s still there,” I answered, already feeling the crack of Alchemy forming in the palm of my hand as I walked forward and pressed it to the man’s neck. Every muscle in his body froze up, as well, and the vein in his neck started to pulse from fear or aggression, I never cared to find out.

I leaned down so that my mouth was at the same level as his ear to whisper, “sorry, but that gun on your hip’s useless now. As we speak, I have someone readying to knock out your friend out front, and the one out back is already paralyzed, just as you are now. Already, your best man is gone, how’s that working for the group esteem? Not good, I hope.” Robert smirked and brushed his jacket down, grabbing the gun out of the holster and tossing it to Havoc. I straightened and watched the door open, the man from the front opened the door and shut it behind him. “Is he ready yet?”

Dakota’s eye’s flickered to me and I nodded once, watching as she slowly drew something out of her pocket. I looked back to the man and shook my head, “I’m afraid he’s not. After a brief examination, we decided to escort him into the military’s hands for carrying a concealed weapon onto these premises. As will you.”

His eyes widened before his hand flinched and he looked at the man in the seat, glaring something that went like “how could you?” before he quickly found his gun on his hip. Dakota’s arm swung out and I watched as the man fell back, gripping his other shoulder, hard. Havoc had just barely grabbed his gun behind us and Armstrong was still struggling to put on his gloves as Vicky and I stepped forward. I kicked the gun towards her and rested my hand on his forehead, watching as his muscles locked up, too. Vicky took the gun and put the safety on, checking the barrel for a second before releasing the loaded bullet. She tossed the gun behind me and I heard the sound of skin on metal, telling me that Havoc or Sciezka had caught it.

“And, sir, I’ll have you know that your friend in here didn’t give you up. You did.” He continued to stare at me, confused and angry as I stood up and added, “Oh, and your three friends in the waiting room are out cold, by the way. No use in relying on them.” I opened the door and caught his head on the top of my foot before it could make contact with the ground. I laid it back down and went out, snapping my fingers at the three with the same baggy black shirts and trench coats matching the beanies before I opened the door, jumping when I saw Maria, Roy and Maes standing there.

I smirked and motioned them in, letting Maria get the glimpses of the frozen ones in the waiting room before she split off from us. “I’d ask you how you knew to come here,” I mused, looking over my shoulder with a grin at the men. “But that would require listening.” Maes chortled slightly as I winked at Roy before adding, “And quite frankly, I have a head ache as is. There’s one in the alleyway, too.” Havoc looked up as we got closer and shrugged at us, still trying to hoist the man in the doorway up. “Give it a rest, Jean; his paralysis has one side effect: the gravity on him is multiplied ten-fold or, at least, that’s what it feels like to him.”

“And you would know that how?” I glanced at Maes and smirked.

“How do you think I learned it,” I answered, sidestepping the man to walk through the room to the window, where I then jumped out of it and walked over to the frozen man. The alchemic energy built up in my palm and I pressed it to his shoulder before I snapped my fingers, watching as the ice encased him before his muscles could get used to being free again.

I pushed against the ice and tripped over my own two feet when he slid out from under my hands. I quickly got to my feet, glad that no one had seen that before I continued to push him out front. I waved at Maria when I got close and pushed on the ice. I tripped again and laughed when I landed on my butt, rubbing the back of my head. I heard a snort in front of me and looked up to see Roy standing there, his hand outstretched for me to take. I reached out and grabbed it, smiling. He hoisted me to my feet and I heard Jean brake out into laughter. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Jean, next time it’ll be you pushing the guy.” I grumbled under my breath and listened to Roy laugh. I rubbed my temple and rolled my eyes. “Ok, I deserved that, blah, blah. I get the point.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” He continued to chuckled. I gave him a dirty look and rolled my eyes. “I guess I better de-paralyze those two, huh? You’d better get some handcuffs on them.” He smirked and nodded in an ‘already-done’ way. I giggled at myself and walked around him and to where Havoc had been reduced to silent chuckles. I paused and pushed him forward, giving him a bad look when he just stumbled slightly and glared at me.

I returned it for a second before rebuilding the alchemy in the palm of my hand. I clapped my hands together to build a steadier bond between the two and pressed my hands to each of the paralyzed peoples bodies, watching them jerk a bit before they regained their ability to move. Maes frowned at them and let Havoc help him get them to their feet. I leaned against the side of the house and listened as someone’s feet made their way towards me. “Tired?” The voice was amused.

I cracked open my left eye to give him a bit of a message as I nearly snapped, “What was your first clue?” He chuckled briefly. “I’m only human, after all.”

“Then stop pushing yourself,” He advised.

I shrugged, sighing slightly. “It’s boring to do things within your limits when you know you can do something.”

“You sound like Edward.”

I paused. “You know, I’ve been noticing that the more time I spend with him, the more I revert back to my old self.” He chuckled, rubbing his hand over the top of my head. I shut my eyes and leaned into it, listening as Maes called back to catch up after questioning the doctors and Roy called back his yes sir. I cracked my eye open again and asked, “Is it weird? I mean, working under your best friend?”

“Not much,” He shrugged. “It just takes a moment to remember positions. He’s a pretty good boss, no matter; definitely better than anyone other than Grumman.”

“Oh,” I paused and got off the wall, making my way towards the door with him behind me. “Oh, and by the way, the votes are down to Kindlei-don, Hakuro and…” I paused, looking back to see him, his eyebrows raised in interest. “You.”

He stopped in his tracks for a moment before asking, “Wait, I’m entered in this?”

“Well, duh,” I answered, coming up to the study’s door. “Who do you think is in a dead-heat tie with Hakuro for first? Oh, wait, I wasn’t supposed to say that,” I added with a wink before opening the door. In the meantime, he had stopped in his tracks, shock evident in his eyes and his Ki.

“Wait, what?” He finally asked, coming to his senses as he walked in and shut the door.

I shrugged. “What what? Did you hear something out there? I thought I heard someone upstairs, too.” He gave me a hard look before sighing and starting with Robert. I picked up the folder I had received from Falman and read through it a few times as he went around the room.

“What do you have there?” I looked up at Sciezka and sighed, shutting it.

“Just a bit of bad news. Why do you ask?”

“You seemed to get more and more aggravated with every word you read. I wanted to know if there was something you needed to share.”

“No,” I sighed, shaking my head. “It’s just a generalization of anything that was stolen within the last three years all across Amestris. It’s just baffling me why he gave it to me.”

“Oh.” She said and walked away. I reopened the folder and frowned. Within the last three years, items from Xenotime, Aquroya, Resembool (I was most shocked at that) and Central had been stolen and depending on which way you used it, it all added up to the amount of ingredients you needed to create the Water. Wait… They were missing all of the promethium. There was only three mines in all of Amestris: one only a few miles from here, another that went bone dry years ago a few hundred miles from Xenotime and another in the direct middle of them both—there was a team working there, currently, but the one not too far from here was supposedly abandoned forever ago. Maybe… Well… they are here, after all, and he does owe me a few favors.

“Hey there, Aqua!”

“HOLY-!” I stopped in my tracks as the chair I was on tipped backwards, sending me on my head. I frowned, rolling backwards until I ended on my knees, my hand in between them as I rubbed where my head hit the floor. He looked at me, sheepishly, as he climbed in the window, quickly followed by her. “How the heck do you do that?!” I finally snapped, glaring up at them. They looked at me, startled before turning to each other.

“I got a feeling you were thinking about me,” He finally answered as I got to my feet, starting to heal my head.

“Yeah, I know that, but that was, what, all of two seconds ago?!”

“We were close,” She answered.

I paused and shook my head, finally lowering my arm to face them. “You know, just drop it. I don’t really have the time to start mind games with you two… that or the patience.”

“Head ache?” He offered. I picked up a pen and chucked it at him, watching as she caught it and threw it back. The whole ordeal lasted a good five minutes until Roy stepped in and caught the pen she threw at me. He gave me a dirty look and I stopped.

“Listen, Princie,” I mused, watching as Ling looked back up and walked towards me. “I need a favor.”

“Took ya long enough,” He chuckled. “I was starting to wonder when we’d get to pay you back.”

“‘We’?” I remarked and my eyebrow rose.

“I,” He sighed.

“Excuse me,” We all turned to where Dakota had sat down on a counter, sipping a cup of coffee. “But, Doctor Major, would you mind introducing us?”

“Right, of course,” I said, sighing as I went through all their names, “Mister Armstrong, Dakota, Victoria, Robert, Roy, Jean and Sciezka, I’d like you to meet the Prince of Xing: Ling Yao and his body guard, Lan Fan.” She glared at me for a moment before asking, “Ce qu'il vous faut?” {What do you need?}

“Il y a une mine d'environ deux point trois kilomètres. J'ai besoin de vous pour me dire ce que c'est qu'ils vous minière y.” {There’s a mine about two point three miles from here. I need you to tell me what they’re mining there.}

“I’m going!” Ling announced and jumped out the window.

“What? No, Prince!” Lan called after him. “I cannot allow you to!”

“They’re totally in love,” I chuckled at her actions.

“Mine?” Roy asked and his eyebrow rose.

“Just a suspicion,” I answered and looked back at the folder.